"If helping the poor is a crime, and fighting for freedom is rebellion, then I plead guilty as charged." --Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran

Friday, February 03, 2006

U.S "AID" Blinding

January 28, 2006

U.S. ‘AID’ SHOULD NOT BLIND GOVERNMENT TO NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF VFA

The reported “benefits” from the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)with the US should not blind the government to the negative effects of themilitary agreement and the need to terminate it, according to independentthink-tank IBON Foundation.

In response to calls to abrogate the VFA, Undersecretary Zosimo Paredes,executive director of the Presidential Commission on the VFA (VFACom),warned that the country could lose as much as $8 million a year inmilitary and humanitarian benefits.

But sovereignty has no price, says IBON research director Antonio Tujan.Moreover, this “aid” do not benefit Filipinos but even raises many issueson the humanitarian and development aspects of foreign aid. “Aid is notbeing used to uplift people’s conditions but only as a tool forpacification, and in the process, raises issues of human rights violations.”

These issues have become most prominent in the Philippine context wherethe campaign against rebel groups has involved the systematic killing andrepression of unarmed civilians. In 2005 alone, 74 activists– includinghuman rights lawyers, local government officials, church workers, andcommunity organizers– have been murdered allegedly by operatives of theArmed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

In return for this aid, the US military is allowed to maintain a presencein the country through joint military exercises so it can fulfill itslong-term security plans in Asia. “Development programs and projects arebeing implemented not to truly address the development needs and agenda ofpoor Filipinos but to address the military and economic agenda of the US,”says Tujan.

So-called special relations with our past colonial masters have no placein a country that claims to be independent, he adds. “These relations mustbe established on the basis of mutual benefit and the non-compromise ofeach country’s sovereignty. The VFA clearly violates this basic principleand thus, should be terminated,” Tujan says. (end)